Nguyen Van Huy's works during his lifetime
On January 25, the Gansu Provincial Arts and Crafts Association issued an obituary that Mr. Ruan Wenhui, a master of Asia-Pacific handicrafts, the first batch of Chinese arts and crafts masters after the reform and opening up, and the second Chinese arts and crafts masters, senior arts and crafts artists, and honorary president of the Gansu Provincial Arts and Crafts Association, died in Lanzhou at 20:30 on January 24, 2021 at the age of 88 due to ineffective medical treatment.
Speaking of Lanzhou carved gourd, Master Ruan Wenhui is a leader. In the traditional concept of our country, the gourd represents auspiciousness and "fulu" (harmonic with the gourd), because its rounded shape also marks the consummation, it not only occupies an irreplaceable position in ancient folk activities, but also has a very close relationship with literature and art, totem worship, myths and legends. The gourd vines are continuous, the knots are luxuriant, and it is regarded as a mascot for future generations, so that auspicious treasures appear in our lives from time to time. In Jincheng Lanzhou, which has a special affection for gourds, it has become a work of art and is famous. As early as the Wei and Jin dynasties, there was the craft of carving gourds in Lanzhou. After the opening of the ancient Silk Road, a large number of gourds were introduced to the interior through the Silk Road. With the change of aesthetic taste for gourds, people began to paint and carve on gourds, and only in the Qing Dynasty did there be a clear historical record of carving gourds. At that time, there was a Xiucai named Li Wenzhai who first came into contact with the carved gourd in Lanzhou, and then slowly continued it, which was later inherited by Mr. Ruan Guangyu (Ruan Wenhui's father), the founder of the Ruan carved gourd, who carried forward the carving gourd technique and let the traditional craft of carving gourd ascend to the hall of elegance. By the 1950s and 1960s, Lanzhou carved gourds once became the most popular export products for export earnings in Gansu Province. News Film Studio even produced feature films to introduce at home and abroad.
Ruan Wenhui inherited his father's business, absorbed the strengths of all, and brought the art of carving gourds to the extreme, until now, carved gourds are also typical representatives of Lanzhou's characteristic handicrafts. Among the many artists who love and professionally make carved gourds, the Nguyen family is the most prestigious, and Nguyen Van Huy has made indelible contributions to the skills and inheritance of carved gourds. Because of the superb skills, in addition to allowing the children to pass on the mantle, there are countless people who study from teachers, which can be said to be full of peach and plum. Shocked to hear of Ruan Laoxian's death, the gourd carving master Qi Hongmin expressed deep sorrow: "Master Ruan is not only my lover's uncle, but also a guide on my artistic path. He had a profound impact on me in terms of skill, art, and human being. I remember that when he taught me the craft, he knew everything, said everything without reservation, and his patient and meticulous teaching benefited me for life. Nowadays, our generation of gourd-carving artists is also about to retire, but under the leadership of Teacher Ruan, a new generation of gourd-carving masters have spread out and slowly risen. Although Master Nguyen has left us, his art has been passed down, and I believe that Master Nguyen is also very pleased. ”
Mr. Ruan Wenhui's daughter, Ruan Lin, a master of arts and crafts in Gansu Province, was interviewed by reporters. "My father was a miscellaneous family, and he was like an encyclopedia to me," she said. When he was a child, he did not deliberately ask us to learn, but in life, he would create a cultural atmosphere that made us hear from an early age. Technically, he treated me and his disciples equally, and he was very good at inspiring our imagination and creativity, rather than copying and rigidly learning. He likes to accept new things and dares to innovate in art, so that the connotation and extension of the mascot in traditional Chinese culture have a new definition and enhancement. I remember that he often said in his lifetime: 'Giving life to a work is the greatest charm of art, not a rigid copy.' This sentence will be useful to me for the rest of my life. ”
Ruan Lin has loved art since she was a child, which is not unrelated to the influence of her father, Nguyen Van Huy. "At that time, although the family was very poor, but the spiritual wealth was very rich, let me be influenced by art from a young age, I remember when I was a child, my father often wrote, painted, and sang poems, which made me deeply infected." Even in the most difficult times, I never stopped learning, always loved traditional calligraphy and painting, liked to read classic traditional literature, poetry and song, etc. Because I liked to watch "Dream of the Red Chamber" at that time, those beautiful female images were deeply imprinted in my mind, and then I came up with works related to the theme of "Dream of the Red Chamber". My father gave me a lot of advice in this regard, such as how to better deal with the details of the work, the relationship between the characters, the background or the poetry and painting related to it, etc., he said: "Mature works of art should give people a pleasing and natural feeling, not rigid lines engraved on gourds." What my father taught me was not only skill, but also the courage to think pioneeringly, whether it was a person or a person, he subtly influenced us. ”
Mr. Nguyen Van Hui was born in 1934 in Tangshan, Hebei Province. He devoted his life to the professional research of art, not only in calligraphy and painting, but also in carving, engraving, branding, sculpture, lacquer art, stone art, pottery and other aspects of outstanding achievements, in the art theory has his own unique insights. The miniature carved gourd and hand-kneaded clay man is known as a must in China, and he dedicated his life's energy to the cause of arts and crafts. Mr. Ruan Wenhui was the vice chairman of the Gansu Arts and Crafts Society, the director of the Gansu Aesthetics Research Association, and the president of the Lanzhou Folk Arts and Crafts Association. Mr. Nguyen Van Hui studied art with his father, Nguyen Quang Oo, since childhood, and was deeply influenced by family learning. In the 1980s, he inherited his father's business, eclectic, using rich knowledge and skills of Chinese painting, to create ink freehand, imitation celebrity calligraphy and painting, color carving, micro-engraving and other techniques, he carved "150 children's game diagrams", "Tang poems 204", "Dunhuang Feitian 120 bodies", "Taoyuan Xing", "Night Tour", "Eight Immortals Song" and other 4 sets of 6 micro-carved gourds were designated as national treasures, collected by the China Arts and Crafts Museum, its micro-carved gourds were listed as national treasures and collected by the National Treasure Museum, and his works were collected in Canada, Singapore, He is collected in the United States, Japan, Malaysia, and Hong Kong and Taiwan; his works have been recommended to the world as feature films by CCTV and film studios.